Employee Directory

What is an employee directory?

An employee directory is a central repository for employee information. It stores HR information, such as employee name, role, contact information, working hours, vacation schedules, and other contractual data.

It is unrealistic to expect that employees know all their colleagues. Finding the right team member (based on different criteria: title, location, and supervisor) is usually hard without any tools. Additionally, helping newcomers get their job done, especially in large companies with disparate locations and remote workers, is challenging. You have never thought about the employee directory until you had to find someone, and no one else could tell you where to find them.

Why do you need an employee directory now?

The Human Resource world is continuously changing and evolving towards a complete digital transformation because technology's advantages are easy to absorb and become assets for any organization.

The business environment is subject to fierce competitiveness where only the strongest survive and grow. Among the strengths of a company are the workforce and the software that eases the management.

The HR leave management software is increasingly complex, permanently updated based on the market realities and challenges, and allows you to focus on essential development goals.

One of the commonly requested features in the digital workplace is the employee directory. All ten best intranets of 2020 nominated by Nielsen Norman Group had an employee directory on the homepage.

Why is it essential to use an employee directory?

Companies often use one of the available tools for managing an employee directory.

Some still rely on manual spreadsheets, but they are hardly flexible and reliable enough to house an entire employee contact list, the company phone directory, or a simple employee database. There are many problems with spreadsheets: they are manual, which adds the risk of human error; they are static, meaning they rarely change. People forget to update their information or one person. Usually, an admin must keep track of each employee. Contact information can vary, as well as titles and roles, quickly outdating the spreadsheet that is supposed to be the golden record. They supply limited employee details. Cells give facts, such as names, titles, departments, locations, emails, and phone numbers. Discover ten reasons why leave management software is more powerful than a spreadsheet.

Compared with the intranet site of an organization filled with files, links, and pages that are not easy to find, rarely updated, and even less often used. The employee directory has all the essential employee records meticulously organized and critical in company administration.

HR software includes an employee directory feature, making these tools more effective for the staff and the HR department.

Of course, HR software vendors notice this fact and design a user-friendly employee directory functionality.

Over time, organizations have improved resource utilization and collaboration by entrusting employees with crucial information about their colleagues, like phone numbers, job titles, email addresses, departments, and locations. Technology has allowed employee directories to evolve from primitive paper lists to Excel, highly structured and automated cloud-based systems, and the digital workplace.

Today, the employee directory aims to be a unique source of truth for employee information.

Which are the most common uses of the employee directory?

There are many ways the employee directory helps with everyday tasks and getting employees the information and support they need to work toward their goals and achieve results. Here are just a few:

• Looking for someone to contact
  We all engage with coworkers on many platforms. The employee directory gives us a quick way to find contact details to connect rather than sifting through emails hoping they have an email signature.
• Understanding where someone "sits" in the org chart
  Knowing the department they belong to and whom they report to and work with helps employees know where they fit and can collaborate. It also allows you to see whom you can talk to and where you can find helpful advice.
• Finding coworkers
  Meetings and phone calls are often more effective than back-and-forth email communication. Knowing someone's location allows for fast meeting planning and deciding the best time to call them in another time zone.
• Integrating new hires into the organization
  The employee directory is a key resource for new team members to learn about their new colleagues and vice-versa. It helps new employees have a quick pace and contribute faster.
• Finding people with specific skills and expertise
  Whether it is putting together a project team, gaining feedback, finding a mentor, or finding someone to collaborate with, searching for people with specific skills allows users to discover experts across the entire company.

What makes up an employee directory?

Names, job titles, contact information, and location may be helpful, but what about a system that eases collaboration, gets things done and finds the data when needed?

An employee directory application can be much more than a name and email address. Employee directories are all about people and connecting employees.

While an employee profile holds many attributes, such as contact information, employment information, and personal information, as a baseline, the following exist in an employee directory:

• Name
• Team
• Office
• Email
• Phone
• Job title
• Birthdate
• Employment date
• Supervisor
• Emergency contact.

Over time many organizations have expanded the employee-related information they gather and make available via the employee directory. An employee directory is a unique point of HR data. And data provides you insights, saves time, helps with access to people analytics, and helps you make better human resources decisions in small and medium businesses.

What are the benefits of an employee directory for employees?

• Employees can easily and quickly access any employee info from anywhere.
• It is always up to date with all employees and their necessary information.
• Employees can easily do an advanced search by name, location, department, job title, and email.
• It is super secure, so when employees leaves the company, their access to the directory is withdrawn.

What are the benefits of an employee directory for businesses?

When speaking about the benefit of cloud-based employee directories, we can think about the following key aspects:

• Build better working relationships

  When you can put a face to a name, you are already closer to creating a better workplace relationship. Instead of having a paper directory or countless numbers on your phone, an employee directory software allows you to have photos, a biography, a job title, location, expertise, etc. The digital directory software makes it easier to find who is who, mainly when you use a self-service approach. A visual corporate directory app creates a social experience.

• Boost employee engagement

  When employees can provide and access information directly, they feel more empowered, which boosts employee engagement. Besides, an employee directory app makes it easier to quickly find sources, data, and other details without stopping and asking for contact information.

• Strengthen the company culture

  When employees know how they fit in the company and have a big picture over their team, they can easily show their identity and purpose. When employees understand how they fit in the company and have a big picture of their team, you can easily show their identity and purpose.

• Collaboration becomes easier

  The employee directory software is a fantastic way to connect employees and ease the collaboration between teams and departments.

• Onboarding is improved

  Whenever someone new joins the company, they are overwhelmed with all the new names and faces, especially those who handle what. It can get a little embarrassing when you bother a team member to help you remember who is who. Using an online employee directory, you can reduce the risk of awkward encounters when you cannot put a name to the face. All the new hire needs to do is check the directory and determine which employee handles what.

What makes an employee directory a successful one?

A successful employee directory solves HR problems or supplies answers to workforce questions. Here are a few tips to ensure yours gets the attention it deserves and is often accessed:

• On the intranet homepage
  Make it an integral part of the corporate intranet landing page for all your employees, and never have them wondering where they need to go to find someone.
• Company branded
  Build the company culture and make it consistent with your digital workplace's "look and feel."
• Complete and up-to-date people information
  Employees want confidence in the information available. Having gaps in your employee directory and outdated information is a safe way to make it redundant. Some companies use such people databases as employee information software.
• Quick and easy to use
  Make the search box prominent on the page and ensure it returns fast and correct results. The HR tracking database facilitates access to people data, regardless of how complex your people org structure is.
• Visually appealing
  Ensure a directory is a tool people want to use by ensuring the search interface, and results are displayed logically, with easy-to-read fonts and colors, no matter the device you're using.
• Uses specific terminology of organization
  Avoid confusion using the organization's familiar terms, i.e., division, branch, or unit rather than a department.

What is an employee database?

The employee database is a structured collection of HR data about each of your employees, usually stored electronically. The HR database holds essential employee information such as team, location, managers, and hire date, structured as easy-to-find and follow employee profiles.

What is employee database software?

An employee database software is a program designed to store and organize employee data and make it accessible on demand. With employee database software, your HR records will be centralized and secure.

What are the key takeaways and bottom line about the Employee Directory Software?

The employee directory is linked to the overall corporate organizational chart, giving employees an even greater understanding of where they and others fit into the organization. The feature is helpful in many ways, mainly if someone is absent. It makes it much easier to visualize their team members, managers, and direct reports if a substitute is needed.

An employee directory is more than just finding someone; it helps you with your everyday tasks and gets you the information you need to achieve your goals. What do we mean by that? Be engaged with your colleagues, know who sits where in an organizational chart, so you know whom to contact, especially if the main person is on vacation, and easily search for people to help you out based on their skills and expertise. That is why having an employee directory software that is easy to use is crucial to your business.